National 4/5 Geography

Topic Areas

The National 4 and 5 Geography course covers three main units which teach pupils a range of skills and increase their awareness of the world around us. Content is delivered at National 4 and 5 standard. Skills taught build on work done in S3 and help prepare for the transition into the Higher course.


Unit 1 - Physical Environments

  • Rivers (fieldwork will be carried out for this topic during a fieldtrip)

  • Limestone

  • Weather

  • Skills in answering 'describe' and 'explain' questions, reading information from maps, diagrams, charts, tables etc.

  • Skills in answering map work questions, 6-figure grid references, identifying features from a map


Unit 2 - Human Environments

  • Population

  • Urban (fieldwork will be carried out for this topic during a fieldtrip)

  • Rural (looking at farming changes in the UK vs farming changes to rice farming in India)

  • Skills in answering 'describe' and 'explain' questions, reading information from maps, diagrams, charts, tables etc.


Unit 3 - Global Issues

  • Tourism (focusing on mass tourism in the Caribbean and eco-tourism in Kenya)

  • Health (focusing on case studies of malaria, heart disease and HIV/AIDS)

  • Skills in answering 'describe' and 'explain' questions, reading information from maps, diagrams, charts, tables etc.


Skills

The Geography course builds skills in answering 'describe' and 'explain' questions, as well as developing skills in fieldwork techniques and data processing. These are all key components of the National 4/5 course and have a strong emphasis on expanding on explanations and backing up points made. The course also focuses on developing critical thinking skills throughout along with literacy, numeracy and ICT skills.


Assessment

Pupils will be regularly assessed on course knowledge via 10min tests and/or end of unit assessments where possible. Prelims will take place at the beginning of Term 3, with a top-up prelim once the course is finished towards the end of Term 3.


The Added Value Unit (AVU) forms 20% of the final grade at National 5 and forms a compulsory unit to pass at National 4. This is a written report based on fieldwork usually undertaken during Term One when the weather is better! Here, pupils develop skills in gathering data as well as processing data once back in class. The National 5 write-up takes place under SQA exam conditions and this is then externally marked by the SQA to form that 20% component of pupils' final grade.


Progression

Progression from National 4/5 Geography will lead to either National 5 or Higher Geography or for some pupils it will be more appropriate to progress into our N5 Skills for Work course in Travel & Tourism or another National 5 subject in Social Subjects.


Career Pathways

  • meteorologist

  • careers in travel and tourism

  • landscape architect

  • environmental manager

  • geologist

  • teaching

  • THE NEXT DAVID ATTENBOROUGH?

  • nature conservationist

  • journalist

  • weather forecasting

  • climatologist

  • ecologist

  • demographer

  • town and country planner

  • surveyor

  • cartographer

  • hydromorphologist

  • estate agent

  • rural land developer

  • park ranger

  • earth scientist

  • statistician

  • GIS specialist